Episodes

Adair Turner, Baron Turner of Ecchinswell, is Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of major companies, investors and experts identifying pathways to limit global warming to well below 2˚C. From 2008-2013, Lord Turner chaired the UK’s Financial Services Authority. He was Director General of the Confederation of British Industry (1995-2000); Chairman of the UK Pensions Commission (2003-2006); and was the first Chairman of the UK Climate Change Committee (2008-2012). From 1982-1995 Lord Turner worked at McKinsey, and was Vice-Chairman of Merrill Lynch Europe from 2000-2006. Lord Turner authored Between Debt and the Devil (Princeton: 2015), and Economics after the Crisis (MIT: 2012). He became a cross-bench member of the House of Lords in 2006, and holds a degree in History and Economics from the University of Cambridge.

This week's episode is a recording of Michael's latest blog post for BloombergNEF: CLICK HERE TO READ THE ORIGINAL POST Our thanks to BloombergNEF for allowing us to record and share it with our Cleaning Up audience.

Dipender Saluja and Ion Yadigaroglu are Partners at Capricorn Investment Group. Capricorn is a sustainable investment group, one of the largest mission-aligned investment firms in the world, and our sponsor on Cleaning Up. Dipender Saluja is a Partner of Capricorn Investment Group, and a Managing Director of Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund. Prior to Capricorn, Saluja was Chief of Staff at Cadence, a global market leader in electronic design. Prior to Cadence, he worked at Data General (EMC), Honeywell, ROLM (IBM), and the GF Energy Research Center. Saluja is an electrical engineer by training, and attended UND, University of Minnesota and Stanford University. Ion Yadigaroglu has been Managing Partner at Capricorn Investment Group since 2004. Prior to Capricorn, Yadigaroglu was Director of Business Development with Koch Industries, and a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Bivio, a software startup in Colorado. Yadigaroglu was a research fellow at Columbia University and …

Meredith Adler is Executive Director of Student Energy, a global youth-led organization empowering young people to accelerate the sustainable energy transition. Adler has served as Executive Director of Student Energy since 2015, during which time the organization’s network has expanded to comprise 50,000 young people in 120 countries. Adler was Global Community Manager at Student Energy before commencing her directorship. Prior to joining Student Energy, Adler was Communications Coordinator at Clean Energy Canada, and has held positions at Great Basin Water Network and the Student Conservation Association. Adler holds a degree in Geography from the University of British Columbia, and is a keen climber.

David Cebon is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Road Freight, and a founding member of the Hydrogen Science Coalition. Prof. Cebon leads Cambridge University Engineering Department’s Transport Research Group and the Department's research theme 'Energy, Transport and Urban Infrastructure'. Prof. Cebon’s research covers the mechanical, civil, and materials aspects of road transport engineering. He has authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed papers on the dynamics, safety, and environmental performance of heavy-goods vehicles. He has a strong current focus on vehicle energy consumption and decarbonisation. Prof. Cebon is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

László Varró is Vice-President, Global Business Environment at Shell, where he leads their Scenarios Team, and was formerly Chief Economist at the International Energy Agency. Varró joined Shell in 2021, after ten years at the International Energy Agency, firstly as Head of Gas, Coal and Electricity Markets (2011-2015), then as their Chief Economist (2016-2021). In his native Hungary, he spent six years at MOL (2005-2011), an integrated oil and gas company, and held posts at the Hungarian Energy Office (2000-2005) and at the National Bank of Hungary (1997-2000). Varró studied Economics at the Corvinus University of Budapest and completed graduate studies at the University of Cambridge.

Nobuo Tanaka is one of the world’s foremost experts on energy, technology and trade policy. He’s had a near 50-year career in energy, including four years as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency between 2007 and 2011. Since 2011, Tanaka has served as a Global Associate for Energy Security and Sustainability at the Institute for Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ). In addition, Tanaka is professor at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy; Fellow at the Centre on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University; and is the former President of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. From 2007 to 2011, Tanaka served as Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA). He was Minister for Industry, Trade and Energy at the Embassy of Japan, Washington DC from 1998-2000. Tanaka was appointed Director for Science, Technology and Industry at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 1991. Tanaka began his career at Japan’s Ministry o…

Yanis Varoufakis is an academic economist and politician. He’s a member of Greek Parliament, Founder and Secretary-General of MeRA25, a left-wing political party, and famously served as Minister for Finance in Greece in 2015. He subsequently wrote a book about the experience called Adults in the Room (2017), about how the EU stymied his attempts to renegotiate Greece’s debts in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Varoufakis was elected to Greek parliament and appointed Finance Minister in January 2015 by Alexis Tsipras, in the midst of the Greek government-debt crisis. Varoufakis led negotiations over Greece’s bailout conditions with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, but failed to agree terms. Varoufakis resigned from government and parliament in August 2015, despite a referendum indicating popular support for his stance. Varoufakis founded MeRA25 in 2018, under whose banner he returned to parliament in 2018. Varoufakis h…

This week's episode is a recording of Michael's latest blog post for BloombergNEF: https://about.bnef.com/blog/after-ukraine-the-great-clean-energy-acceleration/ Our thanks to BloombergNEF for allowing us to record it and share it with our Cleaning Up audience.

Dr Silvia Madeddu is a scientist and expert in decarbonisation strategies for energy-intensive industries. Dr Madeddu has a particular area of expertise in industrial heat, and is at the cutting edge of research hoping to transform the energy transition in Europe and beyond. Dr Madeddu is Senior Sustainability Consultant at Schneider Electric as of August this year. In her previous role, Dr Madeddu was part of the Global Energy Systems modelling group and was Senior Scientist on Industry Decarbonisation at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (2018-2022). At PIK, she helmed research into the potential of direct electrification of heat supply for reducing industrial CO2 emissions. Prior to joining PIK, Dr Madeddu served as Chief Scientist at Cambridge Carbon Capture, developing new Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) technologies. Dr Madeddu holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield in Materials Science and Engineering, and a master’s in Science and Technology …

Professor Chris Rapley CBE is Professor of Climate Science at University College London’s Department of Earth Sciences. He served previously as Director of the British Antarctic Survey and of the Science Museum, and is a passionate and plain-speaking advocate for Climate Science. Professor Rapley is a Fellow of UCL and of St Edmund's College, Cambridge, a member of the Academia Europaea, Chair of the European Science Foundation’s European Space Sciences Committee, Member of the Advisory Board of the UK government’s Clean Growth Fund, Patron of the Surrey Climate Commission, a member of the Science Advisory board of Scientists’ Warning, and a member of the UK Parliamentary and Scientific Committee. His previous posts include Directorships of the Science Museum and British Antarctic Survey, Chair of the London Climate Change Partnership, President of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, Executive Director of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme, and founder…

Jonathon Porritt has been on the front line of environmental campaigning for more than 45 years. He has worked tirelessly to promote the solutions to today’s converging environmental crises – including as Director of Friends of the Earth (1980s), co-chair of the Green Party (1980-83), of which he is still a member, Trustee of WWF-UK (1991-2005), Chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission (2000-2009), and Chancellor of Keele University (2012-2022). Jonathon is Co-Founder of Forum for the Future – the UK’s leading sustainable development charity – and President of Population Matters and The Conservation Volunteers. His work as author, broadcaster and commentator on sustainable development has had a huge impact over the years, and he is involved in the work of many NGOs, charities and campaigning organizations as Patron, Chair or Special Advisor.  His latest book, ‘Hope in Hell’, a powerful call to action on climate change, was published in June 2020. His other recent book…

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of carbon recycling company, LanzaTech. Prior to joining LanzaTech, Dr. Holmgren was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. Dr. Holmgren is the author or co-author of 50 US patents and more than 30 scientific publications. In 2003, she was the first woman awarded the Malcolm E. Pruitt Award from the Council for Chemical Research (CCR). In 2010, she was the recipient of the Leadership Award from the Civil Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) for her work in establishing the technical and commercial viability of sustainable aviation biofuels. In 2015 Dr. Holmgren and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she was awarded the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology. Sustainability magazine, Salt, named Dr. Holmgren as the world’s most compassionate business woman in 2015. In …

Dev Sanyal is Chief Executive Officer of VARO Energy Group AG, based in Zug, Switzerland. He was appointed to this role effective 1 January 2022. Prior to this, Dev had a 32-year career with BP plc including over a decade as a member of the group executive committee and headed gas and low carbon energy globally. Prior to this, he was chief executive, alternative energy and also accountable for BP’s Europe and Asia regions. During his tenure, he built world scale businesses in sustainable energy – solar, offshore wind, onshore wind, hydrogen and gas and power - and led the pivot in the company’s energy transition strategy. Dev joined BP in 1989 and held a variety of international roles in London, Athens, Istanbul, Vienna and Dubai. Prior to joining the Group Executive Committee, he held the roles of group treasurer and chairman of BP Investment Management and Arco Aluminium, chief executive, Air BP International and chief executive, BP Eastern Mediterranean. Dev is an indep…

Bill McKibben is founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change, and has appeared in 24 languages. He’s gone on to write 20 books, and his work appears regularly in periodicals from the New Yorker to Rolling Stone. He serves as the Schumann Distinguished Scholar in Environmental Studies at Middlebury College, as a fellow of the American ...

Dr. Julio Friedmann is Chief Scientist and Chief Carbon Wrangler at Carbon Direct. He recently served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Fossil Energy at the Department of Energy where he was responsible for DOE’s R&D program in advanced fossil energy systems, carbon capture, and storage (CCS), CO2 utilisation, and clean coal deployment. More recently, he was a Senior Research Scholar and now a Non--Resident Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA, where he led the Carbon Management Research Initiative. He has held positions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, including Chief Energy Technologist, where he worked for 15 years. Dr. Friedmann is one of the most widely known and authoritative experts in the U.S. on carbon removal (CO2 drawdown from the air and oceans), CO2 conversion and use (carbon-to-value), hydrogen, industrial decarbonisation, and carbon capture and sequestration. In addition to close partne…

Aksel is one of the most successful alpine skiers in history – winning 2 Olympic golds, 5 World Championships, 36 World Cup races and two overall World Cup titles. He began his career as a serial entrepreneur and investor while still competing, and since 2015 has been part of the partner team at Norselab, where he is now Deputy Chief Investment Officer. Norselab is an Oslo-based impact investment platform in which Capricorn Investment Group’s Capricorn’s Sustainable Investment Fund owns a 20% stake.

Mindy Lubber is the CEO and President of the sustainability nonprofit organization Ceres. She leads an all-women executive leadership team and more than 160 employees working to mobilize the most influential investors and companies to solve the world’s greatest sustainability challenges. She has been at the helm since 2003, and under her leadership, the organization and its powerful networks and global collaborations have grown significantly in size and influence. Prior to Ceres, Lubber served as a Regional Administrator at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under former President Bill Clinton. She also founded Green Century Capital Management and served as the director of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MASSPIRG). She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her leadership. In 2020, Lubber was awarded the United Nations ’Champions of the Earth’ Entrepreneurial Vision award. In the same year, Lubber made Barron’s Magazine’s list of the 100 mos…

Julia is currently leading the introduction of private financing into new nuclear in the UK – Sizewell C is the path finder project. This involves working cooperatively with Government, with cross party MPs, trade unions, with industry and with the financial community. Julia has lead the development of a new vision for nuclear as ‘servant of the future energy system’ – nuclear working together with renewables and contributing to both the growth of a hydrogen economy and to the development of Direct Air Capture, as well as generating electricity for the National Grid. Prior to joining EDF to develop the Sizewell C Project, Julia was Head of Power at Herbert Smith Freehills for the UK and Europe, and led a team advising on power projects of all technologies, and has worked on a range of infrastructure projects in transport and defence sectors, and in M&A. Julia led the team advising BEIS (then DTI) on the formation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, and spent a year on secon…

Roger Pielke, Jr. has been on the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder since 2001, where he teaches and writes on a diverse range of policy and governance issues related to science, technology, environment, innovation and sports. Roger is a professor in the Environmental Studies Program. Roger is currently focusing his research on a NSF-sponsored, 16-country evaluation of science advice in the COVID-19 pandemic. Roger holds degrees in mathematics, public policy and political science, all from the University of Colorado. In 2012 Roger was awarded an honorary doctorate from Linköping University in Sweden and was also awarded the Public Service Award of the Geological Society of America. In 2006, Roger received the Eduard Brückner Prize in Munich, Germany in 2006 for outstanding achievement in interdisciplinary climate research. Roger has been a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan since 2016. From 2019 he has served as a science and economics …

Simon Morrish is the CEO and founder of Xlinks, CEO of Ground Control and Partner at Levitate Capital. Simon is a serial entrepreneur (he is the founder of amongst others, Xlinks, Future Motors and Skysports) who has invested in and worked with companies such as Excel IT, Solar Ventus, CQC, Survey Roofing and Litter Boss. Simon started out at Morgan Stanley as a Derivatives Analyst, he then worked at McKinsey & Company. With his wife, he co-founded and directed How-Smart Ltd which was successfully sold to a larger competitor. Simon holds a Master’s degree with Distinction in Economics, Engineering and Management from Oxford University and a Master of Business Administration degree with Honors from Harvard Business School. Simon was a recipient of the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year™ award for Transformational Leadership in 2018 and was the recipient of the British Business Excellence Awards LDC Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2021.

Hannah Jones is the CEO of The Earthshot Prize, a prize and a platform founded by HRH Prince William and the Royal Foundation in 2020 to search, spotlight and scale solutions that can help repair and regenerate the planet in this decade. Hannah Jones is a social and environmental advocate believing in the power of entrepreneurism, innovation and collaboration to affect systems change. She started her career in radio, at the BBC, before working as a social entrepreneur in a British Charity, founding and leading pan-European AIDS/HIV prevention and anti-racism campaigns across 100's of Radio stations. She then worked on the founding team of Microsoft’s philanthropy program in EMEA before joining Nike to help start their first Corporate Responsibility team in EMEA. For 16 years, as Nike’s first Chief Sustainability Officer, working to the CEO and the Nike Board of Directors, Hannah helped lead the transformation of Nike’s labor rights and sustainability efforts, turning both func…

Robert Llewellyn is the joint CEO of the Fully Charged Show. Robert Llewellyn is most commonly known for playing the role of Kryten for 30 years in the BBC hit series Red Dwarf. He hosted the Channel 4 series Scrapheap Challenge for 10 years, along with 8 series of How Do They Do It for Channel 5. More recently he has taken his career to YouTube with The Fully Charged Show, the series has over 870,000 subscribers and now receives an average of 4 million views a month. On the Fully Charged Show Llewellyn and his co-hosts investigate the rapid development of electric vehicle technology and anything from solar panels to alternative energy sources. He is the author of seven fiction and eight non-fiction books, Llewellyn, who is of Anglo-Welsh ancestry, learnt to drive at age 11 (having been taught by his older brother in a go-kart); formerly a "petrol-head", he is now a widely acknowledged electric car and renewable energy/clean tech advocate and frequently presents talks on …

Ion Yadigaroglu has been Managing Partner at Capricorn Investment Group since 2004, and is an early investor in iconic technology companies including Tesla, SpaceX, Planet, QuantumScape and Saildrone. Capricorn was born from the desire to demonstrate the huge investment potential that resides in breakthrough commercial solutions to the world’s most pressing problems, and as such is one of the original impact investors. Prior to Capricorn, Ion was Director of Business Development (M&A) with Koch Industries, executing a range of acquisitions and investments, and a Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Bivio, a software startup in Colorado, and an Analyst at Olsen & Associates, a quantitative forex trader. Ion was a research fellow at Columbia University and holds a master’s in physics from ETH Zürich in Switzerland and a Ph.D. in Astrophysics from Stanford University. Ion serves on the boards of Twelve and Capricorn, and was a founding member in 2007 of GIIN, the Global Impact…